During 2013, Atlanta received over 66 inches of rain. The 30 year average is less than 50 inches of rain. This can make for significant water issues for basements. One of the biggest problems in a basement is water seeping or leaking through a crack in the poured basement wall. This looks much like the photo.
What causes a basement crack to leak? The simplest explaination is there is too much water pressure on the outside of the basement. As the pressure builds on the outside of the wall/house the water will try to come into a low pressure area (ie your basement). This water will either come in through a crack in your poured wall
basement wall leak
or through an opening at the base of the wall (floor/wall joint). These are different issues and need to be addressed differently.
Basement Wall Seepage/Leak Repairs
Crack Injections
Exterior Crack Repair
Grading
Downspout redirection
Gutter maintenance
The most common method of basement wall crack repair is using a hydrophilic crack injection. Hydrophilic injections are a polyurethane that gets injected into the crack (they generally use ports on the outside of the crack to push the material into the crack).They expand 2-4 times their injected volume. Hydrophilic is flexible and adheres to concrete – making it a very good choice for residential crack injections.
Other methods of crack injections are epoxy and hydrophobic. Both can be used but come with pros and cons. The epoxy is a great structural repair but if there is movement in the wall they can crack and begin to leak. Hydrophibics have changed over the years but area typically used for larger filling applications such as voids or they are used in commercial applications when a large crack is “gushing” water.
If you have a crack in a poured basement wall then talk to a qualified waterproofing or foundation repair contractor about your issue. Not every basement wall crack needs to be injected as often times these are just shrinkage cracks. If they are not leaking or getting any larger then these cracks are of little significance.
Expect to pay several hundred dollars on up to $1,000 per repair depending on how much patchwork has been done and how back the crack is. For outside repairs the costs can vary widely as it has more to do with terrain than with the crack itself.
During 2013, Atlanta received over 66 inches of rain. The 30 year average is less than 50 inches of rain. This can make for significant water issues for basements. One of the biggest problems in a basement is water seeping or leaking through a crack in the poured basement wall. This looks much like the photo.
They expand 2-4 times their injected volume. Hydrophilic is flexible and adheres to concrete – making it a very good choice for residential crack injections.